​Society of Vacuum Coaters - Techcon 2010

May 18, 2010

On April 17 – 22, 2010, the Society of Vacuum Coaters held their annual technical conference at the Orlando World Marriott Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The technical conference included a range of technical sessions covering a wide spectrum of topics for all areas of vacuum coating. The featured topics for the year were:

Symposium on Cleantech Energy

Joint Session on Atmospheric Plasma Technologies

The general sessions included:

Tribological and Decorative Coating

Vacuum Web Coating

Optical Coating

Emerging Technologies

Large Area Coating

Plasma Processing

Process Modeling and Control

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

Machining of large process vessel

On April 20th and 21st, there was also an exhibition and Vendor Innovator’s Showcase for vendors to show their products and innovations to potential customers.

For those who attended the conference, one thing was immediately apparent. The attendance was down an estimated 40 percent from the prior year. There were also many vendors absent. The dates of the show corresponded to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which halted all travel from Europe. Since this show and the attendees span the entire globe, the absence of the European contingent was quite noticeable.

The hottest topic this year was the Symposium on Cleantech Energy. These sessions were well attended. The main topics of discussion were research in photovoltaic materials, worldwide demand for photovoltaic products, and the manufacturing demands to meet the needs of the consumers as the world converts over to cleaner energy technologies.

The U.S. appears to be leading the world when it comes to research on the new materials and technologies for improving the performance of photovoltaic products. Much research is being done on testing different material combinations to increase the performance of the devices. The main goal of this research is to increase the efficiency or watts generated per square inch with cost effective materials that are easy to manufacture. In order for the technology to become widespread, the energy has to be produced at a lower cost than current energy technologies like coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Because of the large supply of natural resources available within the U.S., current energy production technologies are at a lower cost than what is possible within other countries around the globe. This can easily explain why solar devices are much more abundant within the European community, because of their reliance on importing fuels used for energy production. Additionally, the German government provides large subsidies to consumers who install solar devices to help offset the initial cost to purchase and install the solar panels.

European countries account for almost 75 percent of the global demand for photovoltaic devices. The U.S. is currently the third largest consumer of devices, accounting for approximately 7 to 8 percent of the global demand. In 2009, the world demand for solar cell production reached 9.34 GW. It is expected that by 2014, the worldwide demand will increase by 2.5 times. In future years, with the global push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and all of the potential government regulations regarding emissions and green technologies, it is easy to see how the potential demand for solar cell production can become quite large.

Currently Germany and China are the largest producers of photovoltaic cells, while the U.S. accounts for about 6 percent of world production. With the increase in global demand and particularly in the U.S., there will be plenty of opportunities for a buildup in the production base in the U.S. There are currently more than 100 companies in the U.S. doing research in photovoltaics and manufacturing solar panels. The Department of Energy has recently announced a Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative to increase the production of solar panels within the U.S. They are offering a total $125 million ($25 million per year over 5 years) in grant money to companies looking to start up or increase production of solar panels within the U.S. It will be interesting to watch the changes in U.S. manufacturing to see how it will respond to anticipated increases in the demand for these technologies.

​As the U.S. ramps up the production of solar panels to meet increasing demand for solar energy, larger and more complex chambers and vessels will be needed to improve solar panel production efficiency. Meyer's expertise with the design and production of state-of-the-art vessel and chamber technology will allow us to contribute to the growth and development of the solar energy field. Meyer Tool has earned a reputation for manufacturing equipment others deemed impossible to build. From project inception, we work with our customers to develop low cost solutions using our expertise in design and manufacturing. Our goal is to provide our customers with top quality product at the lowest total cost of ownership.